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Purpose: Marginalizing dynamics can emerge in school communities that are experiencing rapid demographic change, even when led by equity-oriented principals. The purpose of this article is to consider how educators can serve as transformative leaders through their performing cultural work that addresses inequity, crosses sociocultural boundaries, and fosters inclusion. Cornel West's theories on the cultural politics of difference inform the discussion, as does the literature on transformative leadership for social justice. Research Design and Methods: This comparative case study examined two North Carolina elementary schools that have experienced rapid demographic change, and it explored educators' and families' responses to cultural diversification and their views about school-family relations. Data analysis was conducted via an iterative process that identified common themes, entertained alternative conclusions, and triangulated interview, observational, and document data. Data revealed participants' general beliefs, concerns, and fears about demographic change, particularly as they relate to their communities' growing Spanish-speaking Latino population. Findings: Provided are data-based profiles of school principals and the sociocultural contexts of their school communities. Findings emphasize contradictions between the principals' equity-oriented stances and their exclusionary beliefs and practices; school community members' notions of cultural difference; and the biases, segregation, and brooding tensions affecting the schools. Implications for Research and Practice: The opportunities that principals have to perform cultural work as a form of transformative leadership are discussed, along with the value of explicitly infusing the notion of cultural work into transformative leadership frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on in-depth interview data to discuss the school choices and educational advocacy roles of 14 African-American mothers. The narratives of the study's participants, who have low-income or working-class status, show how race, class and gender factors influence their school choice-making and their value of education. The author asserts that the mothers' school choice-making constitutes an important act of cultural resistance and empowerment called motherwork. Analysis of the study's findings challenges conventional notions of parent involvement and counters prevalent stereotypes that portray African-American mothers as uncaring. Attention is given to the inequities that the mothers face in the educational marketplace and how they seek agency. Educators are urged to consider how the mothers perceive themselves and construct their educational involvement roles in order to engage parents in empowering and meaningful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to improve our nation's underperforming schools, education reformers are designing programs to educate and empower urban school parents. Parent involvement can be critical to a child's academic success, yet the education community still knows very little about the impact of specific parent programs. We evaluated a parent program that was part of a major school-university partnership. A responsive evaluation approach initially guided the design of our qualitative case study evaluation. Our social justice–oriented values, however, prompted us to revise our approach and adhere more closely to a social justice evaluation model. This change caused us to highlight the perspectives of low-income Latina mothers and emphasize the gap between parents' and educators' notions of empowerment. In this article, we describe our evaluation and highlight key findings that offer insightful implications for education practitioners, researchers, and evaluators. The findings pertain to the challenge of educators sharing power with urban parents and developing partnerships that are sensitive to the social and cultural factors that affect parents' values, goals, and modes of participation. We also emphasize the relationship between evaluation theory and practice and point to the potential impact of social justice evaluation in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars, educators, and reformers continue to debate the merit of school-choice reform. In this article, the author marshals in-depth interview data from low-income and working-class African American mothers to describe how they engage in the educational marketplace and construct their school choices. The mothers' data shed light on the potential of charter schools and school vouchers to offer parents equal educational opportunity. Their stories show that their positionality—race, class, and gender factors—powerfully influences their educational decision-making. The mothers are determined to seek agency for their families through their school choice making, yet they question whether charter schools and vouchers can help them. Drawing upon feminist theory, the author counters traditional assumptions about the mothers and their school choices by introducing the notion of "positioned choice." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]